Norwegian Aluminum Industry May Impact Iceland's Environment

OSLO, Norway, August 30, 1999 (ENS) - At a conference of the Norwegian aluminium industry earlier this month, Norsk Hydro, which is mainly owned by the Norwegian government, said it will continue with plans to build new aluminium smelters in countries with cheap energy supplies such as Iceland.

But the plan is running into opposition from environmental and tourism organizations. Cheap electricity for aluminium production is no justification for ignoring environmental considerations, said the international conservation organisation World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Norwegian aluminum products (Photo courtesy SINTEF)

Aluminium production is one of the most energy-intensive processes in the world. According to WWF, a planned smelter in Reidarfjordur on Iceland's East Coast would result in enormous costs to the Highlands' environment which have not been taken into account.

"Environmental accounting should not be a concept alien to an international firm," said Peter Prokosch, director of the WWF Arctic Programme in Oslo. "If Norsk Hydro engages in building and running an aluminium smelter in Eastern Iceland, it will also be responsible for the inevitable destruction of the largest wilderness area remaining in Western Europe. Large parts of the unique Icelandic Highlands will have to be flooded to produce the energy required."

WWF supported growing public opposition led by the Iceland Nature Conservation Association against government plans to develop, and thereby destroy, the pristine highlands and river systems north of the Vatnajökull Glacier.

Volcanic eruption beneath Vatnajökull Glacier indicates enormous energy stored beneath the earth (Photo courtesy Michigan Technological University)

Recently several environmental organisations and parts of Iceland's tourism industry have lobbied the government for an environmental impact assessment (EIA) before proceeding with plans to build aluminium smelters.

So far the Government of Iceland has not considered applying the country's EIA law to this project.

Iceland's Orkustofnun, the National Energy Authority, says the country has an abundant energy potential in the form of geothermal energy and hydropower. Energy consumption per capita in Iceland is the second highest in the world. About 85 percent of all housing in the country is heated with geothermal energy, the remainder being heated with electricity.

Most of the country's electricity (93 percent) is generated using hydropower; the remainder is based on geothermal power. Only 10 to 15 percent of the technically feasible hydropower has been harnessed, and only a fraction of the geothermal potential available for electricity production, Orkustofnun says.

For WWF, the threatened area compares in importance to outstanding landscapes such as Yellowstone National Park in the United States. It should become a national park rather than be sacrificed for cheap aluminium production, the group maintains.

Norsk Hydro's argument that it is not concerned with how and where the energy is obtained is "unacceptable" in WWF's view, considering long running discussions in Norway about the impacts of power plants in the Alta River Canyon and Ovre Otta River.

This 1990 stamp featuring the pink-footed goose was designed by Pröstur Magnússon (Photo courtesy Virtually virtual Iceland)

The world's largest pink-footed goose (Anser brachyrhynchus) moulting area has been offered free by the government for the project. The value of this vast area of natural land has not been factored into the subsidy offered to Norsk Hydro, WWF says.

WWF hopes that the parties concerned can offer the Icelandic government a better price for the land than Norsk Hydro, and work to protect the Icelandic Highlands for the benefit of future generations.

The international conservation group is also considering appealing to Norwegian taxpayers to press their government to stop what the WWF calls "the destruction planned in Iceland."

According to a 1993 industry study sponsored by SINTEF (The Foundation of Scientific and Industrial Research at the Norwegian Institute of Technology), about 20,000 Norwegians were then employed directly or indirectly by the aluminium industry, which also gives work to 5,000 people abroad. The most important companies are Hydro Aluminum, Elkem and Raufoss. Between 1980 and 1990, Norwegian production of primary aluminium increased by 36 percent, and 80 to 90 percent of production is exported to Europe.

The Norwegian shipping has improved its competitiveness as a result of close cooperation with the Norwegian aluminium industry, the SINTEF study found.